What is this, I just stumbled upon it? Why didn't I hear about this, it looks awesome!
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Got it today, was waiting for it for a long time. It was supposed to come out in November last year, then December and now it's finally out.
BTW, G.Rev is just the publisher; the developer is Dracue Software. -
Cool! Nice to see someone here got one (not that surprised of course). How is the game itself?Comment
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Been waiting for this for a while. I'm a bit torn between the SE and the LE. I'm not entirely convinced that the LE is worth the extra cash.Comment
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It's not. It has a full soundtrack but the "artbook" is nothing more than the CD booklet with few character sketches. It's a mech game and they show the humans. Bah.Comment
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Ah, that's good to know. I wasn't expecting a Izumo Jyuki-style mech spread but being burnt on the Code of Princess OST and artbook LE recently has made me wary!Comment
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LE rundown
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Thanks for posting the video- looks like I'll either pick up an SE soon or an LE if P-A ever discounts them to a sensible price.Comment
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I don't think you'll get a niche game LE like that at a 'sensible' price. nin-nin-game.com has the LE in stock and is charging considerably less than P-A.com.Comment
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On a side note, Gunhound was my first Nin-Nin-Game order and they marked down the game, so no import duties. I think I'll switch to them from P-A.Comment
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Play-Asia will mark down too if you ask - there's a note on my account to do everything at 30% value. Not to detract from Nin-Nin though; they are good and you don't even need to ask for the markdown.Comment
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I once asked P-A to mark down and they refused to do so.Comment
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I've taken a brief pause from EO4 and started Gunhound EX...or was it Assault Suit Leynos 2? They start off almost identical...which is a good thing!
The rhythm is faster than Leynos and during missions controls are much more similar to Valken, as the loadout for the mission is fixed and can only be changed in the game's main menu.
Weapons can be accessed directly through combination of buttons rather than being switched around, there's no shield and apparently no power-ups. But the Gunhound can exhibit itself in some robo-punches, which can also be robo-drills if configured so...and this makes me happy.
Anyway, the standard weapon is a machinegun, which, like Valken has unlimited ammo but needs a break every now and then to reload clips. Pressing R locks on targets, and together with triangle, they fire homing missiles. R and square access the secondary direct-fire weapon.
The Gunhound can dash, jump and use its thruster to fly a limited amount of time. The training missions also include "flying" segments (similar to Valken's second level) and what feel like 0 g environments, so it seems there's enough content to have the five levels interesting (number derived from the game's OST).
For those who played Leynos and/or Valken, the control scheme, is exactly like that: the Gunhound feels like the Valken and many landing/jumping animations look like a reskin from those two games...heck, even the thrusters look way too similar to Masaya's games.
Graphics are good, not much detail and a lot of repeated sprites (and for those that went around in Valken damaging floor tiles, you can't do that here
), but runs very smooth even when bosses as big as the screen move around while raining down projectiles.
The interface is way too cumbersome, though: the upper left corner has the usual HP/thruster/weapon gauges and the booster information is also repeated on the lower right corner by a non-intrusive text prompt, but the upper right corner...ugh, timer and score counters are way too big. They never interfere with the action but are ugly to see.
Looks ace so far, though a bit unpolished...but Leynos and Valken aren't that easy to reach!Comment
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Sucks... For some reason my order from nin-nin-game.com was confiscated by customs even though it was marked down. I wonder how they managed to do that. It was a big package though with two games. True I live in finland....Comment
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Ugh, escort missions...OK, it's not that difficult but I can confirm that the interface could have used more work...or it was simply designed for a larger screen and/or with proportions different than 16:9, because what the characters say goes right on top of the terrain ahead of you, and in the escort mission's case (2nd level), it hides important elements (mines) from sight.
I also think that the game must be played on something bigger than the PSP's screen, it makes the action much easier to understand, especially where your mecha is facing, which is quite an important thing.
I'm still unsure about the faster game rhythm, with the Gunhound being "realistically" (or...Valkenstically?) cumbersome to control, some of the bullet patterns spit out by bosses might seem a bit unfair.
So far the most difficult parts have been the training missions, but I think that is due to me not understanding what the operator is saying.
On a smaller note, why do developers always ahve auto-save off, when the save option is tucked in the option menu and massive unfriendly to reach? And why at standard volume levels the BGM overshadows voices and special effects? I should spend minutes in the options menu trying to find out which audio levels allow me to hear voices, effects and BGMs without something cutting out the rest!
But this is personal irk of mine...that unfortunately is getting more and more common in recent games.Comment
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